Code: Diginection
by Inuno
Summary: Preceeding Season 3 of Lyoko and Season 2 of Digimon, Jeremie happens to stumble across a whole new Digital World in the search for X.A.N.A. on the Internet. There, the Lyoko Warriors find a group of kids and monsters who just may be able to help.
1. Crossing Wires

Disclaimer: I own neither Code: Lyoko or Digimon (But wouldn't it be so awesome if I did? ^_^ )

Note: This story takes place shortly after Season 3 of Code: Lyoko and Season 2 of Digimon.

Chapter 1: Crossing Wires

A melancholy rain poured upon the factory above as Jeremie spent night after night trying desperately to find a way to locate their arch-nemesis, X.A.N.A. Now that Lyoko was gone and X.A.N.A. was free from the supercomputer, the world seemed truly doomed to fall at the hands of the maniacal program. Jeremie held his head in his hands as he furiously tried to concentrate. At this point, their only hope may be the near indecipherable data sent to them from the mysterious creator of the supercomputer, Franz Hopper, and whatever modifications Jeremie could think of to help find where in the vast sea of the Network where X.A.N.A. could possibly be hiding. So far, things were looking bleak, to say the least.

Off to Jeremie's side (just barely still within his periphery), lay the sleeping form of Aelita, Franz' beloved daughter and Jeremie's equally so friend. For several nights in a row, she'd volunteered to assist in his endeavor in whatever ways she could. It was difficult, but she did at least manage to suggest many beneficial modification ideas for the super scan. Unfortunately, even with the two of their efforts, X.A.N.A. remained under the radar. As he took a moment to glance over in her direction, he took solace that at the very least, she was able to sleep somewhat well. But as for Jeremie, himself, he just couldn't bear the idea that what may very well be one of the most sinister forces in the world could now potentially launch an attack that would take hold of the planet right under their noses. He just HAD to find that accursed rogue program.

Without him even realizing it, Jeremie's time crunching numbers and formulas on the holographic keyboard in front of him had him completely unaware that the morning was fast approaching. The poor boy was still typing madly when the sounds of the large industrial elevator behind him hissed open and two of his friends and fellow "warriors" greeted him with somewhat worried expressions on their faces. "Yo Jeremie," the taller boy in various shades of green clothes addressed him with. "Did you stay up all night _again_?"

Jeremie merely continued typing, trying to keep his concentration. Naturally, his refusal to respond caused the two boys to exchange equally frightened looks. "Look, Einstein, I know you're trying your best, but you need to take a break." Odd, the blonde boy remarked. "School starts in a couple hours. Are you sure you aren't even going to get anything to eat?"

"I may go ahead and skip breakfast today Odd," was Jeremie's response. "I still haven't found a way to locate X.A.N.A. on the Internet."

"Well, maybe that's exactly why you need some breakfast." Ulrich, the boy in green, suggested. "You've been doing this every day for weeks now." Jeremie simply continued typing.

"…Odd? …Ulrich?" Aelita's voice came from the spot on which she slept. Her voice and posture betrayed a lingering grogginess, but it didn't take long for her to snap herself out of it. "Is it time for school already?" As she asked, she was rubbing the fatigue from her eyes.

Ulrich was the one to answer. "Not just yet, but we figured we'd come to let you know there's still time to eat."

"I'd just rather focus my time on getting the big problem done and over with as soon as possible." Jeremie snapped below earshot.

"C'mon Jeremie, you need your energy." The pink-headed girl urged of him.

With the three of his friends all behind him, Jeremie found it hard to concentrate. Then he stopped his typing and lowered his head wearily. "Okay," he finally caved. "I guess something to eat might give me some time to sort my thoughts." And immediately after his admittance, his stomach let out a bellowing groan loud enough to rival Odd's level of hunger. All three of his comrades stood in amazement as they stared at their resident genius. Then, in a collective burst, they all started laughing. As Jeremie couldn't help but join in, he suddenly found himself feeling as if the pressure to save the world had eased a bit.

Kadic Academy Cafeteria

In what seemed to be a surprising sight to the whole Lyoko gang breakfast table, Odd was actually getting beaten in a speed eating contest, and by Jeremie, no less! Each and every one of the group (Odd included) looked positively dumbfounded as the four-eyed stick of a boy cleaned his plate almost before the others had even started eating. "WOW Jeremie, when was the last time you had a good breakfast? Since X.A.N.A. wiped out Lyoko?" Yumi, the girl in black sitting beside Aelita, pondered aloud.

Jeremie didn't hesitate to answer. "Yes." It was simple, precise and honest. Ulrich actually dropped his spoon into his cereal bowl in shock.

"Jeremie, this is crazy. You have to take better care of yourself." Aelita urged. "I know finding X.A.N.A. and a way to defeat him is top priority, but you're running yourself ragged."

"Aelita's right." Ulrich interjected. "Even if you did find him, how're you gonna do anything about him in the state your putting yourself in?"

Jeremie couldn't look any of them in the eye. In his mind, he was thinking too hard about finding some way to fight X.A.N.A. without Lyoko.

"Jeremie, we're serious." Aelita pleaded, as she tried to snap him out of his thoughts.

Unbeknownst to them, he had indeed been listening. "I know. But I guess I just can't help myself. Whenever I think of X.A.N.A. out there, ready to strike, I-" then he hesitated, trying to compel himself not to spring open his laptop and start working again.

"Calm down, Einstein. We know it's scary." Odd came in with to reassure him. He even added a soft pat on the back. "Hey, let's think about something else, okay?"

"Sounds good to me." Yumi agreed.

"I appreciate it, guys." Jeremie said glumly. "But there's just so much to do. I can't concentrate on anything else right now."

"Be glad we don't have a test today, then." Odd retorted. "No teacher'd want to see YOU bomb."

"Is there any way we can help, Jeremie? Lighten the load a bit, maybe" Aelita offered.

Jeremie's thoughts were interrupted at this. Then he looked to be putting quite a bit of thought into it. "Well, I haven't perfected it yet, but I have been working on a way to virtualize you guys into the Network. Maybe if I focus on that, we can start making trips to see if we can't detect X.A.N.A.'s presence manually."

"You think we'd be able to find X.A.N.A. on the Internet?" Ulrich questioned. He clearly wasn't sure if they could do such a thing if Jeremie and Aelita's combined modifications on the super scan couldn't do it.

"It's the best chance I can think of while the super scan isn't working. I'll see if I can't finish the calculations for the process during class." To this, his friends all looked to each other warily, but ultimate came to a silent agreement to trust their friend's judgment. It was true, he'd made mistakes in the past, but no matter what, they could always count on Jeremie to take care of them while they were digital.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Yumi asked.

"I should have it done after class." Jeremie reassured. "If you want, we can try it out then."

"Count me in!" Odd declared triumphantly.

The others jumped slightly at Odd's enthusiasm. "Well, you were quick to say yes." He said nervously.

"Well, yeah. Can you imagine it?" he explained. "We'd be physically going to the _internet_. Wouldn't that just be the coolest thing?"

"Odd, you don't have any idea what the internet is like." Ulrich argued.

"I've been on my fair share of websites." Odd said in that tone he used when he wanted to sound convincing. Obviously, he wasn't making a real argument, but the argument didn't matter. Jeremie needed a test subject and Odd was volunteering. Silently, Ulrich was thanking whatever higher being he could think of at the time that it wasn't him.

"All right then. It's settled." Jeremie declared with a touch of excitement in his voice. We'll meet up later and head over to the factory. See you guys then." And then their little genius took his tray over to the cleaning pile and headed out to work until he had to go to class.

Some hours later, at the factory

Odd, Jeremie and the others all stood together, waiting for the elevator to take them to the main terminal room. When the doors opened and the air pressurized, Jeremie practically jumped into the chair that placed him at the controls and began typing away. "Ok Odd, I'm activating the program that'll take you into the Internet." He told his friend. "Even I don't have any idea what you're gonna see when you get there, so be careful, got it?" His voice became stern as, for a brief moment, all the different images he could come up with of what the Internet would physically look like spun through his mind. "Once you're in the scanner, I'll start the transfer."

"You got it." Odd sounded with some celebration in his tone. "Behold the first Lyoko Warrior to set foot on the Internet!" And with that, he pressed the button in the elevator to take him down to the scanners.

Meanwhile, Yumi, Aelita and Ulrich gathered around Jeremie's terminal, watching with baited breath to see how the outcome of this venture would turn out. "Are you sure this'll work, Jeremie?" Ulrich asked. A flickering moment of reminiscence flashed in his memory of what'd happened to him when Jeremie last tried to experiment with previously unheard-of transfers. The thought made him worry, despite his trust.

"I won't lie. There's probably a ton of ways this could go wrong. But I've done every calculation possible to make sure that it won't." Jeremie too felt a bit uneasy, but they had to try something. And he WAS sure of his calculations. "Ready, Odd?" he then called into the intercom.

"Ready and waiting!" the boy in purple called back. Then, he stepped into the scanner, giddy with excitement.

"Alright, then: Transfer…" Jeremie said as he typed out the commands for the virtualization program. "…Scanner…" SO far, everything was going just as Jeremie had forethought. He even had the coordinates for his friend's destination already down. In just one more step, he'd have Odd on the Internet and they'd have their first look at X.A.N.A.'s hiding place. "…Virtualization!" Jeremie finished. But then, an alert sounded. But it didn't appear as a typical anomaly. Odd's transfer had taken place, but just as the coordinates were set, some kind of program Jeremie had never even seen before started activating on its own. Numbers and characters started racing through the background of the screen and suddenly, the controls were completely out of Jeremie's hands. "Wha-What's this?" the boy asked himself out loud.

"Jeremie?" Yumi asked of her friend. "What's happening?" she urged, tension growing in her voice. Her hands were clenching the back of his chair and she was very close to panicking.

"I-I don't know." He said, honestly. "Something's happening, but I have no idea what." His typing furiously increased pace, but no matter what he did, nothing was changing, the program continued executing despite his best efforts.

"Well, fix it!" Ulrich angrily demanded. Then, a strange box-like figure appeared on the screen with a little window at the upper left corner. Said screen flashed multiple colors for an instant, and then disappeared along with every string of characters that signaled the unknown program. Jeremie stopped typing, and everything looked like it had returned to normal.

Everyone simply stood there for a minute, staring at the screen. For several minutes, nobody said anything. It wasn't until Odd's voice called out through Jeremie's headset that anyone even so much as moved. "Hey Jeremie, are you there?"

"ODD?" Jeremie exclaimed loud enough to make everyone step back.

"Yeah, it's me." Odd responded, clear as day. "Everything looks good, Einstein. I'm not missing anything. The transfer was a success!"

At this, Jeremie's face relaxed enough for his glasses to droop. Nervously, he realigned them on his nose before replying.

"Odd's okay?" Everyone asked, unanimously relieved; to which, Jeremie looked back with a grateful smile upon his face and nodded.

"Odd, I'm not sure what, but something happened during the transfer. What exactly is everything like on your end?" Jeremie was straight to the point. He needed to know exactly what had happened and where Odd was. Currently, his position wasn't displayed on the screen and as soon as feeling returned to him he immediately began working to locate him, even using the super scan to locate for Odd's digital D.N.A. signature.

"Well, it's…cold." Odd said.

Jeremie then stopped. "…Cold?" Everyone looked to each other. Even on Lyoko, none of them would normally be able to feel things like cold or warmth.

"Well, I know it's cold. My body moves like it's cold. But I don't exactly _feel_ cold." Odd's description sounded like a sort-of expansion on the senses that were available to most who ventured on Lyoko. Jeremie got a basic understanding of the situation through the analysis.

"I think I get it. You're body is reacting to genuine cold, but being that your form is a digital avatar and not your real body, you only perceive the reaction as you understand that it should." Jeremie explained.

"But that would still mean that the world he's in is real, wouldn't it?" Aelita questioned.

"That's what I don't understand." Jeremie replied. "You say you're in a snowstorm, Odd?"

"Yeah, and it's getting harder to move the longer I stay still."

"Better move around, try to find some cover while I locate you-" Jeremie began, but then the super scan detected Odd's exact coordinates, and once again, the boy was left speechless. "Th-This is amazing!" he and Aelita said in unison.

Yumi and Ulrich had no idea what was going on. "What? What is?" Yumi asked.

"Odd's…not on the internet at all!" Jeremie declared.

"What? Then where is he?" Ulrich probed.

"He's in…some kind of…parallel world…on the other _side_ of the Internet."

"That's…But that's crazy!" was all Ulrich could say.

"I wouldn't believe it either, if it weren't showing up right on the screen." Sure enough, the giant holographic projector behind the monitor was displaying a whole planet in black and white. But although it looked much like Earth, the various landmasses were too distinct and unrecognizable to be Earth's geography. On the monitor's screens themselves, Odd's cursor was visible on a plane not unlike what Lyoko's had once been viewed as. "Odd, can you still hear me?"

"Loud and clear!"

"My screen is showing you're right next to a mountain. Try finding some cover over there."

"No need, the storm's already settled."

"What?" Jeremie shook his head as he tried to comprehend the sudden change in weather wherever Odd was.

"I'm gonna look around some. Can you send me the overboard?" Odd requested cheerfully.

At first, Jeremie wasn't sure if he shouldn't just call off the experiment and rematerialize his friend, but then he found himself habitually typing in the code. Unfortunately, an alert marker appeared just as he finished. "Sorry Odd, apparently, I can't virtualize your vehicles there like I could in Lyoko. You'll have to look around on foot.

"That's okay. I could use some virtual exercise." Odd said to himself before taking off.

Aelita, still a bit worried about the whole situation, leaned in close to Jeremie to ask, "Are you sure we shouldn't just bring him back?"

"I'll get him out at the first sign of danger. Don't worry Aelita; I won't let anything happen to Odd."

File Island, Freezeland

Kari fervently rubbed at her shoulders to keep herself warm. Her style of dress was hardly contusive for low-temperature environments. Silently, she wished how she could've ended up with more layered clothes when coming to this region of the Digital World, like Davis' or Yolei's. "Why didn't anyone tell me we were going to the North Pole?" she muttered.

"I'm sorry Kari." Ken, the tall, pale boy next to her confessed. "I should've checked the climate of the area before I called us here."

"So, is there another stray spire somewhere in this frozen wasteland?" Cody, the smaller boy across from Ken, asked.

"Yes, although we should have been able to see it as soon as we arrived." Ken explained.

"Maybe the snowstorm covered it up?" T.K. offered. Not moments ago, the snowstorm they'd entered the Digital World into had completely vanished. The area stretched on with a canvas-white plain for miles in all but one direction. Not far to the north-west of their position rose an impossibly imposing mountainside. The whole side from their perspective was just as white and plain as the expanse in every other direction.

"I REALLY hope not. I'm not about to sit here digging in the snow all day." Yolei, the girl in aviator gear, exclaimed.

"Maybe we won't have to." Davis offered to the group. There was a confident look on his face as he nodded to his Veemon partner.

"That would be impractical, even if we tried digging, the snow goes on for far too long-" Ken was about to explain, but just before he could, Davis had already whipped out his D-Terminal and D-3.

"Digi-Armor Energize!" he cried, and at once, in a bright flash of light, a red sphere was released from the miniature communication device and grew until it surrounded itself around his digimon partner.

"Veemon Armor Digivolve to…" the creature's voice rang out. Within the sphere, streams of data were beginning to cascade about him as the sphere took the shape of a new being. "…Flamedramon, the Fire of Courage!"

This new form, similar in structure to its Veemon predecessor was draconian in appearance, with blue and white scaly skin and pieces of armor covering its knees, feet, hands and head. It looked quite fearsome. With a cheer and a holler, Davis directed the creature's efforts to melting the surrounding snow. Flamedramon's claws lit up with fiery light and he started barraging the area with a rain of fireballs. Careful not to hit any of his comrades, Flamedramon barraged his Fire Rocket attack until a good 100 yard radius was partially melted around them. Unfortunately, the attempt proves pointless, as the control spire was nowhere to be seen.

"WHAT were you THINKING?" Ken screamed at Davis after the steam from the evaporated layer of snow cleared away. "Of COURSE the spire wouldn't be this close to here. The spire's proximity would interfere with the Digi-Port!"

But Davis was only mildly apologetic for his recklessness. "Oh, my mistake!" he said with a nervous, somewhat frightened grin.

"Maybe we should try climbing up the mountain to get a better view?" Cody offered. In the direction he pointed, the slope of the mountain curved up perfectly to allow for a well-rounded view.

"Good idea! And I'll see if I can spot it around the bends." suggested Yolei, who immediately took out her own D-Terminal. "Digi-Armor Energize!"

Her partner, Hawkmon was then surrounded by a similar phenomenon as Veemon before. As he was, his voice could be heard from within the sphere of power. "Hawkmon Armor Digivolve to…Halsemon, the Wings of Love!" The form the little bird digimon had taken was of a large, helmeted bird with wing/blade-like extensions from said helmet. Upon this creature, Yolei hopped and rose into the air to accomplish her mission.

Meanwhile, the other 5 members of their little group and their digimon began their ascension of the enormous slope. But just before they were able to get higher than where their heads had been, a deep rumbling was felt under their feet. "Wh-wh-wha-what is that?" Gatomon, Kari's partner stammered. But her answer would come not from her friends, but from the source: a huge herd of Mammothmon stampeding around the bend of the mountain to greet them.

"Guys, look out! There's a huge herd of-" Yolei tried to call out to them.

"We see them!" T.K. responded. Each one of the Digidestined children reached for their D-Terminals in preparation, but before they could even call out their digital friends' powers, a huge elliptical laser shot out from down the mountain and through the herd of elephantine digimon, obliterating them all. Each member of their group gaped in surprise, unable to discern what just occurred. And as the group of 6 all looked up to try and find the source of their aid, a single row of a dozen or so large metal spheres could be seen rolling down from the misty peak directly towards them.

"Do you think they're friendly?" Patamon, the little bat-wing-eared hamster digimon on T.K.'s head, asked. But, as if to answer him themselves, the strange machines opened up into vertical halves and shot more elliptical lasers at the entire group. Without any time to digivolve properly, they were only saved in time due to all the lasers focused upon a single point, which was quickly countered by the timely interception of Halsemon and Flamedramon using their respective attacks to shatter (much to even their surprise) the assault.

Davis and Yolei's elation of success was short lived. For immediately after, the monsters began charging for a second attack. "RUN!" Ken ordered the group. Not a single one of them failed to comply. But while the group tried to escape, the spheres ceased charging and entered a swift pursuit.

The mechanical monsters were just about to catch and trample the Digidestined if not for the fast reactions of Davis and Flamedramon. "Fire Rockets!" the armor dragon digimon called as his attack. Every bit of energy the two of them had to give was thrown into the flames in the creature's claws. Upon being fired at the snow just before the monsters, the snow evaporated into a huge screen of thick steam, allowing for just enough cover for all of them to escape.

Around the bend of the mountain, the kids managed to hide inside a cave that was previously hidden by the uncanny angle of snow and sloppy ridge. There, they were able to find some opportunity to recover. Veemon in particular, was especially exhausted from creating such superheated flames so quickly, and practically fainted in Davis' arms after he'd de-digivolved.

Everyone was breathing heavily with anxiety. "What…were those things?" T.K. exasperated through great heaves.

"I've never seen digimon like that before." Gatomon said.

"That's because they aren't digimon at all." came a familiar voice from deep within the cave. Although the group couldn't quite place the voice at first, they all jumped in surprise when none other than Gennai, the kind guardian of the Digital World, once again appearing as an elderly man.

"Gennai!" T.K. and Kari exclaimed upon recognizing him.

"Gennai?" the others asked, uncertainty filling their voices. "But, you look so much older!" Yolei questioned.

"Yes," the old man coughed. "But I can't really explain that right now. What I am here to tell you is that I've been noticing strange creatures all around the Digital World; creatures that are neither digimon nor from the Real World." The Digidestined gaped at him, curious, yet also completely surprised. Was this some kind of new threat? "And that's not all; about a week ago I began feeling a strange presence all over the Digital World, like a dark wind trying to grasp at the very core of this world. I couldn't go anywhere without picking up on some indication of its presence. It was as if the entire Digital World was being watched."

The children collectively shivered.

Halo all followers of this fic, new and old! I…am DEEPLY sorry for all of you who have waited so fruitlessly, so long for me to update. But! Here I am, now. Perhaps it's too late for many of you, but this night of Christmas, I have decided to gift you all with not only an update, but a promise: I have hereby vowed to myself and you readers to continue this otherwise, previously abandoned fic. Maybe you don't care, maybe you do, but over the course of my hiatus, I've continued to get notes of Favorites and Author Alerts due to this one fic. Looking back, I genuinely liked the idea and truly wanted to continue. Now, I have taken it upon myself to make sure this is delivered to all those who are able to appreciate it. Once again, I apologize for my absence, but here I am, reasonably older, wiser (and if I must say so, a substantially better writer) and ready to give you all an enjoyable read. The only thing else I can say: I hope to high Heaven I do not disappoint again.

-Inuno


	2. Digital Connection

Chapter 2: Digital Connection

"Gennai, do you think these things might have something to do with each other?" Ken asked. His partner, Wormmon looked up with fright as he asked.

The old man though, shook his head wearily. "I don't know what to think. But the monsters are nothing to wave your hand at. As you've seen, they have already proven to be more than a match for even Ultimate Level digimon."

At this, the sight of all those Mammothmon getting wiped out really began to sink in. All those things with that kind of power were indeed intimidating.

Davis, however, as the only one who didn't seem immediately fazed quickly managed to break the ensuing silence. "So what if they're strong? We can take those things. It's not like they stood up to that freaky Daemon or MaloMyotismon." Ken looked like he was about to speak up in rebuttal, but he was stopped when Davis then looked to Gennai with eyes burning with strength. "If those things are gonna start trouble, we'll give it to 'em!"

"YEAH!" All the digimon partners cheered. Even Wormmon got caught up in the excitement and Ken couldn't help but smile.

Then Gennai took another moment to speak. "Thank you." He said. "I appreciate the cooperation of you all. But please, be careful. The most dangerous enemy is an unknown one." The old man turned back to face the darker edges of the cave. He walked to them, and vanished within. But before he was completely gone, an echo of his voice lingered. "We're all grateful."

The group stood in silence once more as they watched for a moment. Once again, it was Davis to speak first. "Well, let's get cracking shells." He said as he was about to race back out into the snow bank. But before he reached the mouth of the cave, he was yanked back by Ken.

"And where do you think you're going while Veemon is still exhausted?" he asked, which brought Davis' attention to his partner, now awake, but still noticeably fatigued.

"I'll…be alright!" the miniature blue dinosaur said between panting breaths. "WOO!" he called out invigoratively before he dropped onto his face pathetically.

Davis winced. "Yeah, I see what you mean." But then he got a smug, competitive look on his face as he backed up to take a quick peek out the mouth. "Alright then, you guys can go ahead, but you can bet we'll be right there if things start to look sticky."

T.K. patted a hand on Davis' shoulder. "We'll be counting on you." He said confidently. After which, he looked to the rest. "Is everyone ready?" he asked them, to which they all nodded. "Alright, let's get started! Digi-Armor Energize!" he called out upon whipping out his D-Terminal. In tandem, they all did likewise and a brilliant, character-decorated light engulfed all their digimon. One-by-one, they all transformed into bigger, stronger forms adorned in wondrous armor.

"Patamon Armor Digivolve to…" the little bat-wing-eared creature from T.K.'s head called. When the transformation was complete, he now appeared more as a gold-lined horse with a pair of shining wings. "…Pegasusmon, Flying Hope!"

"Hawkmon Armor Digivolve to…" Yolei's miniature bird companion announced, once again assuming the form of a large, helmeted, quadropedal bird. "…Halsemon, the Wings of Love!"

"Armadillomon Armor Digivolve to…" came the resounding echo of Cody's yellow, armadillo-like partner as he took to walking on two legs and grew sets of drills extending from both his hands and his face. As well as achieving insectoid wings visible from underneath the armor on his back. "…Digmon, the Drill of Knowledge!"

"Gatomon Armor Digivolve to…" cried the white catlike digimon at Kari's side as it became an ivory adorned sphinx-like creature. "…Nefertimon, the Angel of Light!"

"Wormmon Armor Digivolve to…" the dog-sized worm creature called as a pink, lotus flower-shaped egg merged with his body. "…Bucchiemon, the Heart of Kindness!" And from the sphere of light, the green insectoid creature had emerged as a vaguely human-esque rabbit with a pink and white body. His "ears" extended from his head all the way to his ankles and were tipped with hearts. The pink part of his body resembled something akin to a space suit, giving the appearance of his being some kind of cute alien.

As soon as they'd taken off, the metal sphere-creatures were immediately on them. At least four had already started firing those enormous round lasers, cutting the snow and air right for the Digidestined and their partners. Yolei, Kari and T.K., whose partners could fly, were able to dodge easily enough, but Cody, Ken and their partners were driven right into another set of monsters, already charging up their centers for an annihilation shot. Kari and Nefertimon were rushing to their aid when the creatures were about to fire, but were filled with relief when she saw Bucchiemon fire a pink energy beam at the creature's side, redirecting its attack to just between the two boys. Kari didn't have time to relax, though, as two more shots were coming up fast behind her.

"Star Shower!" Pegasusmon called, raining a flurry of dazzling star attacks on the monsters' iron shells. The attacks, unfortunately only bounced off with enough force to tilt their direction slightly.

"These things are like tanks!" T.K. yelled out from the flying horse's back. "We're barely slowing them down!" His report was cut before he could say anything else as another elliptical laser beam sliced at the air where the armored steed was only a millisecond prior.

By then, Ken and Cody had escaped being surrounded; Cody by means of having Digmon burrow underground and Ken by means of quick-paced hopping while on Bucchiemon's back. "T.K., Kari, you two try lining them up! Yolei, keep to the edge of the battlefield! We're gonna try hitting them all at once!"

Without questioning, each of the Digidestined nodded to the plan."Golden Noose!" Pegasusmon and Nefertimon called in unison. As they danced in midair, a rope of pure golden light appeared between them, which they used to round up the twelve machine-things in a tight crowd. The creatures didn't wait for themselves to get caught before they started firing on the noose and breaking it instantly. But their work was done just well enough that Ken and Bucchiemon were able to prevent immediate scatter with well-aimed shots at the edges of the group.

One managed to get out however, and did not hesitate to circle around the dark blue-haired boy, aiming a shot straight for his back. But Ken was counting on this. Just as the creature opened its edges and exposed its insides, Digmon and Cody popped out from underneath it with force enough to send it into a high lob in the air. When it reached its peak, Ken gave a sharp cry of "NOW!" to Yolei, who with her partner, had then spun-dove headfirst at the creature, knocking it like a pool cue into the group of others.

…Or at least that's what would have happened. "Tempest Wing!" Halsemon cried as he spun and charged with Yolei on his back into the creature. But in doing so, he had in fact entered the monster's direct line of fire. The monster almost seemed to have been waiting for it when it shot the giant bird right in the crested center of its helmet, knocking it from the sky. Yolei screamed as she fell, "HALSEMON!" Enough of her partner's consciousness remained that his impact was swerved mid-fall so as not to crush the girl on his back. Once he landed, he immediately de-digivolved back to his tiny, Rookie form. He groaned as the girl rushed to hold him close.

The creature they'd intended to strike did indeed land upon one of its fellows, and in doing so, caused them both to burst in a second-long flash of shrapnel light. Unfortunately, this did not impede the group. Already it had broken free of Bucchiemon's confining Love Lazer attacks and scattered every which way. Once more, they spread like cockroaches, searching out the Digidestined children and loading their shots aimed straight for the kill. About three of them went for Yolei. Unable to fight back and not fast enough to run away, she tried desperately to carry her friend to safety, but the tanks persisted. Just as one was about to run straight over her, Digmon and Cody appeared from underground again, this time causing the creature it tripped to lob straight over Yolei. The other two stopped and aimed their lasers at the insectoid tunneler. When they fired, Digmon used his armor and drilled to hold off the attacks. It only lasted a moment before they threatened to cut into the creature under the armor. But Digmon held strong as he was pushed back. Eventually he was forced to stand directly over his partner and the older girl. His staunch defense was holding until Yolei looked behind at the one that had been tripped just before. It was charging its laser at Digmon's back. She barely managed to let out a hastened "Look out!" before it was fired and sliced clear into the digimon's back, causing him to cry out in surprise, pain and finally de-digivolving him back to his Rookie state.

Cody and Yolei clutched their injured partners as they were surrounded three ways by the monsters. Cody remained stern and defiant in the face of the unknown enemy, but Yolei wasn't quite so well reserved. Neither her pride nor her confidence allowed her to avoid calling "HELP!" to the skies when she had no idea what else to do. The metal spheres opened to reveal their charging laser fire only to be shot in the center of the eye-like insignia by an unknown projectile, causing the creature to explode. Before they could register what happened, the same occurred in rapid succession to the other two open spheres.

"Did someone call for help?" asked a boy strangely dressed in a cat costume in the direction from which the shots had flown from.

-Moments before the battle-

Odd skidded to a halt as he approached the mountainside. From his viewpoint, just around the corner of the frozen wasteland, there was a forest as vibrant as in spring. On top of that, the mountainside connected to it turned from a sleet-covered cliff to a rocky plateau. The whole area reminded him of a patchwork quilt made of 2 maps. "Jeremie, this place is weird." He simply said to his friend.

"Weird how?" Jeremie requested in return, to which Odd described the area as well as he could.

In the midst of his description, Odd's eye managed to catch something moving in the opposite direction: a pair of Megatanks, unmistakable signs of X.A.N.A.'s presence. He stopped talking and braced himself for battle. But it didn't come. Upon closer inspection, the Megatanks were not moving or even seemed to care that Odd was there. But they were moving fast down the mountain. "Jeremie, did you see that?" he asked his friend back at the factory.

"No, what is it?"

"Megatanks at two o' clock!" the cat boy called.

Jeremie scanned his screen in distress. When he found the enemies rolling away from his friend on the grid lines, he seemed a tad relieved. "Okay, I'm pulling you out." He said.

"Wait. They're running away." Odd responded in confusion.

Jeremie shook his head at the main monitor. "I promised to bring you back at the slightest sign of trouble. X.A.N.A.'s monsters are always trouble. You know that, Odd."

"I know, but-" Odd couldn't put his finger on it, but he felt something was really wrong. "I'm gonna check it out." He declared.

"Odd wait!" Jeremie tried. But Odd wouldn't listen.

"Odd, stop being stubborn and get back here!" Ulrich beckoned from behind Jeremie.

"This isn't Lyoko, it's probably a trap." Yumi stated with justifiable worry.

Truth be told, Jeremie actually believed the opposite. The fact that this wasn't Lyoko raised a lot of questions. What WAS this place? What were X.A.N.A.'s monsters doing there? Did X.A.N.A. make this? If it was a trap, wouldn't X.A.N.A. have attacked the moment Odd arrived? None of them really knew anything except that X.A.N.A. was here. What's more, he had no idea how he even got Odd here or if he'd be able to find it again after devirtualizing him. But he did promise to get Odd out to Aelita and even if he hadn't, there was no way he'd just sit back and allow anything to happen to his friend. "Odd, I'm getting you out of there."

"Jeremie, there're kids here!" Odd exclaimed just before the boy at the monitor activated the exit program.

Jeremie immediately hesitated. "What are you talking about?"

"The Megatanks! They're attacking a bunch of kids and other monsters!"

Jeremie zoomed out his grid-lined map of the virtual plane and discovered indeed that there were anomalous residents in battle formation opposing X.A.N.A.'s forces. Using the supercomputer's scanning functions, he identified the identities of six human children only a few years their juniors. It only looked vaguely different from an I.D. for one of them, and the supercomputer didn't recognize them as having any affiliation with X.A.N.A. However, while the humans were recognizable, the creatures paired up with them were completely alien to even the supercomputer.

Jeremie found himself struggling to make a decision, but Odd didn't. Odd saw that by the time he was able to get a clear view of the battle between the kids and the Megatanks, the kids were being completely overrun. A girl on an armored bird and a boy with a big, drill-covered bug had already been brought to their knees and were surrounded. X.A.N.A.'s forces would have annihilated them all if not for Odd having leapt into their rescue. The first went down without even noticing Odd. And even when the others figured out where his arrow had come from and spotted him, he already had his aim pegged on their Eyes of X.A.N.A. They were gone the moment they faced him.

The kids merely stared at him at first, but in no time at all, the girl with the eagle-creature spoke with renewed vigor. "Whoa, thanks for saving us!" she said.

Odd smiled his usual charming grin upon hearing her thanks. For a moment, he completely forgot that there were still almost ten Megatanks left attacking the other 3 pairs. "No problem! I'd never ignore a lady in need."

The younger girl became slightly flustered, but Odd's attention snapped to the boy when he spoke. "Our friends are still fighting. Please help, they're outnumbered!"

"Don't worry," Odd quipped reassuringly. "I can take care of these mean ol' Megatanks. You guys should find some cover." And with that, he darted towards the next group of monsters.

Things were looking grim. As soon as Digmon and Halsemon had gone down, the creatures had taken the offensive. Within moments, each of the Digidestined were being driven like cattle by a pair of these creatures each. While one of the things would try from the flank of its partner to fire shots at the kids, the partner would be keeping right on their tails, threatening to steamroll any hesitated movements. Nefertimon and Pegasusmon at least had the advantage of flight, but Bucchiemon was only able to hover a few feet off the ground. The monsters driving them seemed to know it too. Every time Ken and his partner tried to slip by them, they were cut off with ridiculous ease. Left, right, forward, flip back around, every evasive maneuver just put them either in the firing range of one or in the roll path of another. Ken at once thought he saw an opening on the far side close to where T.K. and Pegasusmon were being pursued, but when they took it, there was a monster already ready with its weapon charged, but right before it fired, it exploded in a shrapnel of light and what appeared to be a purple cat-boy stood just behind it; a smile and thumbs up decorating his attitude.

Ken didn't have time to ask who he was, but all the same he was glad for the backup. With a nod of silent approval of the aid, he gestured to circle around the other two monsters, now giving directions that mimicked and even out-maneuvered the creatures' own previous strategy. In a matter of moments, the other firing monster was surrounded on both sides by Bucchiemon and the cat-boy.

"Laser Arrow!" the cat-boy called, firing a series of darts from his wrist.

"Heart Beam!" Bucchiemon pointed and fired a pink, heart-shaped energy beam from his finger.

The creature closed its body, shielding its weak points, but that was when Ken, who'd broken away from his partner a moment ago had taken a third side, counting on the second monster to follow him, the weakest of the three. His hopes were answered and just before he was run over, he leapt out of the way. The monster didn't collide with its fellow, however. Instead, it stopped on a dime, turned with relative ease to fire its laser at Ken, but in doing so, left it wide open to attack from Bucchiemon, who fired a Heart Beam straight at its weak point the second it opened its body. The explosion also served to knock the other over to the cat-boy, who casually leaned against it like a wall and knocked his fist on the casing like a door.

"Hello?" he said jokingly. The creature opened its body with intent to fire immediately, but the boy's dart was already poised and expectant. "Package for ya!" he said when the thing blew up.

While all this had been going on, T.K. and Kari had been relentlessly attacking the creatures on their tails in the hopes of stalling them, to no avail. The hard outer shell of the monsters made them completely invulnerable when closed. Due to this, attacking relentlessly had only served to make them into immobile targets for one to circle around while the other simply stood and took the assault. Unfortunately for the Digidestined using this tactic simultaneously, they both fell simultaneously.

"T.K.! Kari!" Ken cried out to his friends. Now they were down two more fighters and up against even more than they'd just defeated. The four monsters all aimed their bodies at Ken and the cat-boy.

"Umm…Jeremie?" The cat-boy stammered. "We could use a little help here."

Bucchiemon swung Ken over his shoulder as he and the cat-boy prepared to make a run for it. All four monsters bolted for them, ready to squash them all, when a series of fireballs barreled between them, creating a steam-smokescreen. Ken recognized this tactic immediately and raced to get out of the no visibility zone. The strange boy followed close behind and, just as he thought; there, outside the cloud of steam were Davis and Flamedramon looking prepped and ready for battle. "Davis! Glad to see you." Ken admitted.

"I said we'd be right behind ya, didn't I?" Davis' usual attitude was as confident as ever. "What say we DNA Digivolve and show these things what they're really up against?"

Ken nodded in agreement, but before he could even touch his digivice, four laser attacks pierced through the steam behind them and collided right against Bucchiemon, de-digivolving him instantly. "Wormmon, NO!"

Once again, it was down to three against four. The other kid Odd had been fighting with up until now having been reduced to tending to a small creature he didn't recognize. Jeremie was close to pulling his hair out in anxiety. Against his orders, Odd had insisted on staying behind to help the kids and now it looked like he might not make it back. All the while he had no idea what to do. He couldn't even send a vehicle, what was he supposed to do to help?

Behind Jeremie, Ulrich had opened the hatch for the elevator, grabbing everyone's attention. "Send me in, Jeremie. Odd can't do this alone."

"Ulrich, that's crazy. I don't even know how I got Odd there in the first place. If I send you in, it might just make things worse. We could lose you without so much as a fight."

"We've gotta do SOMEthing!" he persisted.

"Ulrich's right, we have to help Odd. If he won't come back on his own we can at least try what we can."

"It's too risky-" Jeremie was about to argue, but at this point Aelita had had enough.

"Jeremie, do it." She commanded in her most stern voice.

Jeremie stopped and looked with wavering eyes at Aelita. "Alright." He finally conceded. His uneasy expression never left his face as he typed in the commands to send Ulrich the same way he'd sent Odd. Just as he did, however, something else strange happened. The screen showing Odd's position began to light up with a flickering signal.

"Jeremie, what's going on?"

"I…I don't know." Terror filled his voice; already more anomalies? It appeared as if another new program were trying to activate on its own. But something was keeping this one. The code for the program filled the screen for Jeremie to see and a little tension left his body. His glasses drooped, but with a slight adjustment and a reclamation of his nerve, he went right to studying it.

"Well?" the others asked continuously. "What's going on? Tell us!"

For a time, the young genius drowned out his ears so as to better concentrate. Once he fully understood the nature of this program, he nodded slightly and murmured with an unsteady certainty. "I get it…" With newfound determination, Jeremie furiously began typing, filling in blank spaces of code and thus, completing the program. It didn't take too long to come close to finishing, but before he reached that part, he started talking to Odd again. "Odd, I think I might be able to help."

Odd, the big lizard thing and the boy ran for their lives, all the while desperately trying to protect the others from harm. Through sheer luck they'd managed to take out one of the Megatanks as it targeted Yolei and Hawkmon. Things started looking good again, but then something happened that made everyone's hearts drop into their stomachs: From the top of the mountain, a huge black cloud circled an area around the summit and from that point, a beam of red light pierced the cloud. Even the Megatanks stopped. Once the light faded, four more Megatanks could be seen rolling their way down the mountain, clearly heading to join the fray.

For a moment, Odd was seriously reconsidering taking Jeremie up on his offer to get the heck out of there. As if on cue, Einstein's voice filled his ears. "Odd, I think I may be able to help."

Meanwhile, the boy Odd was fighting alongside looked unwaveringly at the new arrivals. "Bringing some friends huh? I don't care, bring your whole family! We'll take you all!" As he said so, the device at his side began beeping so annoyingly Odd was amazed the boy didn't seem to even notice.

"Davis," Jeremie said, much to both of their surprise when they found Jeremie was communicating with them.

"WHA-?" he yelped in surprise. "Who said that?"

"No time to explain, Davis. You should have something called a 'digivice' on you." Jeremie claimed.

"Y-Yeah, what about it?" he asked. As if to answer, a kind of computer chip manifested itself from the screen and presented itself in a small glowing bubble to the boy. "What…is this?" he questioned in awe.

"Don't worry. It's meant to help. There should be a connection port at the top of your digivice. I'm not sure how exactly, but you need to use that to activate the program I just sent you. Do it."

Confused, Davis hesitated, but then looked to his partner, fighting arduously to protect everyone from the growing number of monsters. Then, with steeled eyes, he took the ship and slammed it into the port Jeremie mentioned. There was a quick flash of light and characters began flooding the screen of the little machine. Four words in particular seemed to burst from the digivice. Astonishment lacing his voice, he could only read it out quietly: "Odd Code: Flamedramon – Diginection Activate." At the utterance of this phrase, the device began to glow brightly.

"Wh-What's this?" asked Flamedramon, to which Davis immediately directed his attention to upon hearing his friend's voice. It was then he saw that in perfect synchrony with his digivice, Flamedramon's body was beginning to light up with a fiery red light. In their distraction, a Megatank fired its laser, piercing the digimon.

"NO!" Davis screamed as it passed through his digimon, leaving only a transparent image behind. Tears began welling up in his eyes before he realized that where Flamedramon had been less than a second before, there was now a flaming orb or light that only stood in place for a second before flying straight into Odd's body.

The light encompassed and engulfed the cat-boy, stopping enemy, Digidestined, and screen capturing Lyoko Warrior alike. When the light died, Odd remained; standing with a low, fiery outline around his body, draconian features like a short, fanged muzzle, bluish armoring scales lining his arms and body and flame designs on his clothes adding to his other, now slightly more pronounced feline features. Upon opening his eyes anew, Odd's voice whispered through the wind: "Flame Dragon Mode."

Everyone was struck dumb. The moment broke only when Odd took aim for a lone Megatank and fired. "Rocket Arrow!" he called. His usual Laser Arrow had been altered as well. It now resembled a small missile coated in flame. The creature closed its body to protect itself. The arrow struck the monster, but did not recoil or bounce off. Rather, it pierced through the armor that had previously been proven invulnerable and then struck a second immediately behind it. Both blew up spectacularly a second later. Even Odd himself was awed for a moment, standing in mild disbelief with slack in his new mouth-nose. This only lasted a moment before another Megatank took the opportunity to fire at the unsuspecting Lyoko Warrior. As if seeing it a mile away, Odd raised one of his flame decorated legs in a shin-block. Once again, this reaction was new to even Odd as his expression hadn't changed. But once he realized his advantage, the slack was replaced with a confidence, vigorous smirk. He kicked his leg holding back the laser attack and the beam shattered as if it were made of glass. Then he fired two more attacks: one at the Megatank that he just rendered laserless and another that he felt was a _little_ too close in proximity to the other kids. Both blew up without so much as a fight.

The remaining Megatanks all rolled back a half-inch, seemingly in fear, before all rolling into position to surround the dragon-cat-boy. Odd didn't let them get the chance. Once they opened their hatched for a shot at him, he raced out of the way faster than any of them could even turn, leaving only a trail of melted snow. Each of the Megatanks searched furiously for where he'd gone, but in trying to follow his trail, he'd made a perfect circle around his enemies, firing directly at their weak spots point blank as he passed them. "Rocket Arrow! Rocket Arrow! Rocket Arrow! Rocket Arrow!" he called. When he was done, he stylishly returned to the very center; the exact same spot from which they intended to strike him down just seconds before. From there, he got a front row seat of their seemingly simultaneous explosions.

When all was said and done, everyone was still staring in absolute shock at what Odd had just accomplished. The silence was only broken when Odd's body lit up again; this time two orbs of light appearing from his body. One, the Digi-Egg of Courage returning to Davis' D-Terminal, and the other, Veemon who popped back into existence right beside Davis shouting with joy. "Wow! That was SO COOL!" he yelled and cheered in excitement.

Odd meanwhile, had returned to his original state, no worse for wear. "Jeremie?" was all he said at first.

Back behind the screen of the supercomputer, Jeremie had to take a moment to pull himself together after seeing what had just transpired. "Y-Yes, Odd?" he asked.

"Next time, let's skip straight to that part."


End file.
